Thanks for the write-up. Most of the problems people have with linked servers are a result of permissions and remote logins. This article seems to deal with an environment wherein the DBA has privileges on both linking server and server to be linked to, so it seems to be limited linking SQL servers only or for very small shops.
For other data sources like Oracle, Sybase, Teradata, and others, the security tab should get some focus, as that is the tricky part of the linked server set-up.
Thanks
Jeff Bennett
St. Louis, MO